Introduction

An Xcode project is a repository for all the information required to build one or more software products. It contains all the elements used to build your products and maintains the relationships between those elements. You can think of it as a kit that contains all the parts to build one or more products, plus the instructions on how to build them. A project gives you a convenient place to find every file and piece of information associated with your work.

This document introduces the various parts of a project, shows you how to create projects, and describes how to organize the contents of a project. This document also describes the project window, Xcode’s interface for performing project management tasks, and shows how to use that interface to find and discover information in Xcode.

You should read this document if you plan on developing software products for iOS OS or Mac OS X. To get the best out of this document, you should be familiar with basic software development concepts, such as object-oriented programming, compilation, and debugging. You should also be familiar with Objective-C, the main programming language used in Apple platforms.

Organization of This Document

This document contains the following chapters, which are divided in two parts:

Part I: Project Organization describes how Xcode projects are organized and how to find information in them.

Part II: Product Development describes how to perform the major development tasks, including static analysis to find bugs in your code early and building your product.

See Also

These documents provide overview or additional information about developing software products for Apple platforms: